Business Owners Indicted in Seal Oil Smuggling Case

The owners of a Walnut nutritional supplement company have been indicted on charges of smuggling seal oil capsules from China.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned eight indictments on Thursday against Denian Fu and Lin Liang, owners of Nu-Health Products Co. The co-owners face charges of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by smuggling capsules from China containing oil from the blubber of harp seals.

Fu and Liang also face charges of falsifying documents and understating the value of the capsules they imported from China to sell in the United States, Canada and Vietnam.

If found guilty, Fu and Liang could face up to five years in prison and a fine of more than $1 million.

An operator at Nu-Health said Liang and all other employees were out for the day.

The indictment was announced by harpseals.org, an animal activist group. The group provided a copy of the indictment to the Business Journal and said it had worked with federal prosecutors on the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment due to the government shut-down.